Tomorrows
by ShutUpAndPull
Summary: Mini-fic #8: An encounter in the park and a few words of advice leave Rick thinking about his future with Kate.


_**Tomorrows**_

Kate paused one last time, glanced over her shoulder with a soft grin, before exchanging pleasantries with the elderly couple on the opposite end of the bench and taking a seat. Rick wasn't all that far behind, just a few good steps, but as he closed in, she turned her eyes most conspicuously to her watch and huffed in feigned displeasure because, well, having a bit of fun at his expense was something she found she always derived a bit of pleasure from.

"Very funny," Rick groaned as he planted himself next to her with an audible sigh of relief. "You know, I don't think the problem is with me walking too slowly, but with you walking too quickly," he exhaled between exaggerated breaths. "This is supposed to be a nice Saturday walk in the park, Detective, not a race."

Kate's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "Not a race, Castle? So, what, the _ready, set, go_ was just-"

"Um, encouragement," he blurted in a tone not unlike a ten-year-old's _duh_.

"Okay," she chuckled, "fine. Why don't you sit here for a few minutes and recover," she teased, earning a look of discontent. "Or maybe just enjoy the sunshine, then. I'm going to head over there and get us some ice cream."

"I don't need to sit. My body's fine. I can come with you," Rick protested, hoping all the while she'd insist and he could remain exactly where he was. Openly admitting defeat certainly wasn't an option.

"If anyone knows your body's fine, Castle, I assure you it's me," Kate quipped, as she leaned in close for his ear. "Trust me, though, you're going to need the energy for later." With a kiss to his salty cheek, she turned and sauntered away, leaving him in a position to have to try and rebound both from the exertion and from the titillating promise of her words.

"Your wife's a real beauty," Rick heard from a voice unknown, causing him to jolt to attention after his eyes had briefly fallen closed. He turned to his right, towards the elderly couple sharing the bench, and found the woman looking back at him with a warm smile. "She reminds me a bit of me when I was her age," she added nostalgically.

"Whatever you say, Gladys," the man next to her chimed in teasingly.

"Oh, you shush, Irv, or there will be no rocky road for you," she sassed, turning back to Rick. "So, young man, how long have you and that flower over there been married, hmm?"

Rick looked off in Kate's direction and drank her in for a quick moment, delighting in the apt descriptor Gladys had offered. "Actually, she's not my wife. We're not married."

"Well, what the hell are you waiting for, man?" Irv roared from the end of the bench. "She's a real fox. You think something better's going to come along?" He threw his arm around his wife. "And this drink of water here is already taken, so don't get any ideas," he cautioned, pecking Gladys's cheek.

Rick smiled and nodded in playful acquiescence. "You're a lucky man, Irv, a very lucky man."

"And don't you forget it, Irving Maxwell Foster," Gladys jumped in. "You'd do yourself a favor to hold on to a woman like _that_ forever," she told Rick. "The way she was looking at you and you at her? It took just four days of looks like that from Irv before we tied the knot, and here we are, fifty-seven years later."

"Fifty-seven-years," Irv echoed with less than subtle wonderment.

Rick turned again to find Kate approaching, a vanilla cone in one hand and a chocolate in the other, and he couldn't help but imagine what that many years with her might be like, what riches that honor would bestow on his life. She truly was extraordinary.

"Ah, one vanilla and one chocolate, I see," Gladys noted, sounding entirely unsurprised. "Seems like a perfect match to me. Just make sure you don't run out of tomorrows, son. Time has a way."

"She's a real fox," Irv remarked once again, apropos of nothing.

"That she is, Irv," Rick agreed. "But don't get any ideas, all right? This fox is already taken," he joked, welcoming Kate with a silent hand to the waist.

"Good luck, you two," Gladys said as she took Irv's hand and helped him up from the bench. "Remember what I said about tomorrows."

"Did I miss something?" Kate said as the couple moved back down the path and out of sight. "What about tomorrows?"

"Oh, it was just some very sage advice from a very sweet couple," Rick replied, awash in thoughts of what the future might bring.

"Advice, huh. And are you going to take it?" she asked, handing him the chocolate cone and biting at the vanilla.

"You know, I just might."


End file.
